Playing Style and Equipment: Choosing Between Tradition and Trend
1
In the plastic ball era, the lean is still toward harder rubber — at least, Butterfly thinks so too. So they announced that some products will be discontinued. Besides some pips rubbers (some fully discontinued, some discontinued in a specific thickness, depending on sales), they also discontinued some relatively soft inverted rubbers, including the fairly famous Sriver FX and Bryce High Speed.
One was the backhand god-rubber of the organic era. The other was a representative of Butterfly’s microlayer technology — though its spin is average, it is very light and quick, very easy to use. Beyond that, they also discontinued the Roundell Soft, also a soft rubber. At least by sales, people increasingly lean toward harder rubber. There was a time amateurs cried that D09c was too hard on the backhand; well, now many have glued it on the backhand too.
Also, some Butterfly blades will be discontinued. For example the Kaii Yoshida, which some penhold players quite like, and the discontinuation of some blade handle types — including the AN handles of the entire Tomokazu Harimoto line, two Jun Mizutani models, the Super Lin Yun-Ju and the Boll ZLC, as well as the ST and AN of the Apolonia and the Franziska ZLC.
Professional players using AN handles are rare now too. Over the past few years it seems ST is also shrinking — FL has won a sweeping victory.
2
I just wrote that the younger generation plays more of a topspin system, with superb rallying — not only in the professional realm but among amateur experts too. But the older players still start from an underspin system. In a sense, these two slightly different systems call for different equipment.
For an underspin-dominant system, even with an inner-fiber blade, the lean is toward softer and easier to load with spin. For example the W968, Innerforce Layer ALC and ZLC. In style, for instance: either rip the half-long ball to end it in one shot; or first loop a spinny enough high hang, then kill on the second ball.
For a topspin-dominant system, even using an inner-fiber blade, you need to raise the stiffness — harder or thicker. One phrase describes it: hardness and softness combined. Such a blade can both loop and hit, with steadier topspin rallying. For example the S968, Ovtcharov ALC, Heima-tuned KLC, Tomokazu Harimoto ALC. Relatively, it can be used closer to how an outer blade is used.
Classic inner blades focus on more extreme spin and absolute single-ball killing power. They need you to actively generate power more. Classic outer blades focus on easier stable rallying, scoring more by speed, placement and continuity. They need pairing with rubber that easily holds the ball and adds spin.
Each player’s style can sometimes be very spinny, very explosive, or varied in speed and placement. But the blade has its natural tendency.
In real matches, against different opponents: for the topspin-dominant, we should try to start from over-the-table underspin balls, breaking them with spin and rhythm changes. For the underspin-dominant, we should try to open the angles, moving them with placement, and at the same time ramp up speed as much as possible.
The professional juniors at table tennis schools, against old masters, should not tangle too much in over-the-table balls and spin; they should play as expansively as possible, with more topspin. And the old masters, against the professional juniors, should make more variation, exposing the difference between underspin and no-spin, striving to score in the first three balls or force the opponent’s errors.
3
The Fan Zhendong ALC and SALC are two fairly popular blades recently. The former is more traditional and classic; the latter, with Super ALC fiber, is the current trend.
The Fan A can be played more simply, handling the incoming ball’s spin more easily, but its elasticity is average and it needs your own power to drive it more. The Fan Zhendong SALC is more sensitive to incoming spin and relatively more prone to catching spin, but it improves the combination of spin and speed under medium power.
Whether in style or equipment selection, we all need to choose between tradition and trend.